ABSTRACT: Expression of L1, a glycoprotein adhesion molecule, in ovarian and uterine tumors is strongly associated with a poor prognosis.

COMMENTARY: Dr. Admin Altevogt, from the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg, and colleagues assessed L1 expression in tumor specimens from 58 women with ovarian cancer and 72 with uterine cancer. They also determined if soluble L1 could be detected in serum samples of these patients.

In both patient groups, L1 expression was associated with poorly differentiated tumors and with advanced disease stage, the researchers note. Moreover, such expression was a very strong predictor of poor prognosis (p > 0.00001).

L1 expression was tied to disease progression even when a histologic type with a usually good prognosis, such as endometrioid-type, was present.

A soluble form of L1 was found in serum samples from patients with stage III/IV disease, the researchers note. Although further studies are needed, soluble L1 could represent a useful marker for the detection or follow-up of patients with ovarian and uterine malignancies, they add.

"L1-based diagnosis and prognosis could make an important contribution towards a better management and treatment of this disease," the authors state.

ABSTRACT: Playing on arsenic-treated wooden playground equipment can slightly increase children’s risk of getting lung or bladder cancer later in life, according to a report released by U.S. safety regulators.

COMMENTARY: Contact with equipment treated with an arsenic compound called chromated copper arsenate can increase the risk of the types of cancer by anywhere from two to 100 per million, a staff report from the Consumer Product Safety Commission concluded.

“It confirms what people outside the CPSC have suspected and some studies have shown — that arsenic does leach from this wood and there’s a risk associated with it for people who use it,” said Paul Bogart, a spokesman for an environmentalist group called the Healthy Building Network, which has petitioned the commission to ban the sale of arsenic-treated wood.

The increased risk is mostly due to arsenic residue that children get on their hands, then ingest because of hand-to-mouth contact, the commission staff concluded.

The amount of added risk varies depending on how much contact children have with the treated-wood equipment, the agency staff said. “While exposure to arsenic from (other) sources could be much higher than the exposure from playgrounds for some children, exposure to arsenic from CCA-treated playgrounds could be a significant source of arsenic for other children on those days that include a playground visit,” the agency’s chairman, Hal Stratton, said in a statement.

Chromated copper arsenate, or CCA, has been used to protect wood from leaching, erosion and pests for more than 70 years. Pressure-treated wood, as it is commonly known, is most often used outdoors in decks and playgrounds.

STUDY: Results of in vitro experimentation that demonstrated the ability of sulforaphane to kill H pylori both inside or outside of the cell.

JOURNAL: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

AUTHORS: Jed Fahey

ABSTRACT: Sulforaphane, a compound found in broccoli that is believed to be responsible for many of the vegetable's health benefits, has been found by researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to help kill helicobacter pylori, or H pylori, the bacterium responsible for stomach ulcers and most stomach cancers. The researchers discovered that the compound can even kill H pylori that has become antibiotic-resistant.

COMMENTARY: The report, published in the May 28 2002 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( http://www.pnas.org/ ) presented the results of in vitro experimentation that demonstrated the ability of sulforaphane to kill H pylori both inside or outside of the cell.

Cells lining the stomach act as reservoirs for the bacteria, rendering it more challenging to eliminate. Sulforaphane also helps prevent cancer by boosting the production of phase 2 enzymes within cells, which detoxify carcinogens and free radicals. When a carcinogen was administered to mice, sulforaphane blocked the formation of stomach tumors. Mice lacking the gene regulating phase 2 enzymes were not protected by the compound.

Research team leader and plant physiologist in the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Jed Fahey, stated, "In some parts of Central and South America, Africa and Asia, as much as 80 percent to 90 percent of the population is infected with helicobacter, likely linked to poverty and conditions of poor sanitation. If future clinical studies show that a food can relieve or prevent diseases associated with this bacterium in people, it could have significant public health implications in the United States and around the world . . . We've known for some time that sulforaphane had modest antibiotic activity. However, its potency against helicobacter, even those strains resistant to conventional antibiotics, was a pleasant surprise."

These latest findings may lead to trials in humans to determine if sulforaphane-containing vegetables can help combat H pylori infection